The instincts
play a significant role in our life. They affect our conduct as well as the
behavior. They have been illustrated in Jain canons from the karmic
philosophical point of view. One of the modern disciplines of science,
behavioral psychology emphasizes the original instinct in the form of natural
tendencies and modes of living, and emotions, feelings. It collaborates with
the karmic explanation.

What is an
instinct?

First of all,
we should understand the concept of an instinct. There are two meanings. One
is a sensation which is called an original instinct in the psychological term
and the other is consciousness. Whatever we do, it is influenced by the
impelling force of these special types of sensation. In the other words
instinct (Samjna) means particular type of tendency of consciousness in which
conscious and subconscious minds are combined together. They are called
sensation. Internal and external causes activate the sensations to arise. The
material cause for them is karmas. The external environment also affects
sensations.

Thanang Sutra,
one of the Agamas, describes ten types of instincts. The first eight are
sentimental instincts whereas last two are concerned with a special type of
thought process.

Instinct of
appetite Ahara samjna

Instinct of
fear Bhaya samjna

Instinct of
copulation Maithun samjna

Instinct of
possession Parigraha samjna

Instinct of
anger Krodha samjna

Instinct of
Pride Mana samjna

Instinct of
deceit Maya samjna

Instinct of
greed Lobha samjna

Instinct of
imitation Ogha samjna

Instinct of
worldly desires Loka samjna

The conduct and
behavior are the outcome of deluding karma (Mohaniya Karma). Due to the
influence of instinct man changes his habits and nature. Therefore the above
stated classification may be clearly understood in the light of karmas
philosophy and psychological divisions.

Outcome of
deluding karmas

Fear leads to
Fear

Anger leads
to Anger

Disgust (jugupsa)
leads to Hatred

Feminine
inclination (striveda) leads to Sexuality

Masculine
inclination (purusveda) leads to Sexuality

Common
inclination (napunskaveda) leads to Sexuality

Pride leads
to superiority complex

Greed leads
to ownership

Indulgence (Rati)
leads to attachment

Dissatisfaction (Arati) leads to sorrow

The similar
division is given by the well-known psychologist Mac Dowell in psychological
terms as under:

Tendency of
escapism leads to Fear

Tendency of
struggle leads to Anger

Tendency of
curiosity leads to eagerness

Tendency of
search of food leads to Appetite

Tendency of
paternity leads to Affection

Tendency of
disgust leads to Hatred

Tendency of
community feeling leads to Community feeling

Tendency of
copulation leads to sex

Tendency of
prejudice leads to superiority

Tendency of
inferiority complex leads to Inferiority

Tendency of
Earning leads to Ownership

Tendency of
Creation leads to Creativity

Tendency of
begging leads to pity

Tendency of
humor pleasure

The above given
divisions can be shorted in three categories. They are:

In the first
group: Instinct of appetite, fear, copulation and possession. These exist in
every creature of the world. An instinct of appetite is found in all. On
account of this a creature feels hunger and searches for it. Really a big
part of our life is motivated by it. A number of behaviors of a living being
are activated by fear. The feeling of getting hurt creates fear. All
creatures have the instinct of copulation. The instinct of possessiveness
exists in human beings as well as in animals. They collect their
requirements and want to get more and more things due to this.

The second
group of instincts: Anger, pride, deceit and greed. This group of instincts
also exists in all living beings, but in man they are well developed and
expressed.

The third
group of instincts: Imitation and worldly desires. All living beings imitate
at looking at others and also have desires.

The first group
of instincts is precursor of activating these instincts. For example when a
person gets hungry and if it is not satisfies he becomes angry. To earn money
people use deceptive methods. Once you start earning greed sets in which may
become the cause of violence, corruptions, etc. In this way it can be said
that the former group of instincts activate the later or both are correlated
with each other.

Origin of
instincts:

Now the
question arises what is responsible of outpouring of instincts? In this
respect we illustrate internal and external causes.

Instinct of
Appetite

Internal: due
to the rising of feeling and deluding karmas.

External: due
to emptiness of stomach, seeing food, thinking about food constantly and
smelling the flavor

External:
Strengthening of muscles and organs of the body, listening or reading the
copulation connected material and constant thinking about it.

Instinct of
possession:

Internal:
deluding karmas

External: To
have possession already, to listen or think about possession.

In this way
instincts of anger, pride etc., are also outpoured by deluding karmas and
activated by external situations.

Impressions of
instincts:

They are not
only connected with our feelings but with physical and mental functioning
structure also. They influence the external as well as internal functioning of
the body. They also affect mental states and feelings. We can understand them
as:

External
changes:

Facial
expressions

Vocal
expressions

Physical
posture and gesture

Internal
changes:

States of the
mind

Feelings of
the consciousness

Psychological
responses

Nervous
system

Secretion of
glands

Chemistry of
blood

The
scientific approach:

For a long time
it was believed that the brain was the source of energy and the seat of
impulses of man. Significant progresses in Endocrinology (branch of science
dealing with the endocrine system) in the recent years has established that
the passions and expressions affect the endocrine system.

The Endocrine
system is the basis of the habit formation in a person. The habits manifest
themselves in the Nervous system and that becomes behavioral pattern. Thus
manifestation and behavior are the function of the nervous system, but the
birthplace - the production centre of the instincts is the endocrine system.
The endocrine glands control through chemical regulators called hormones. The
hormones regulate the body functions. These chemical messengers exert profound
influence on the mental states, emotions and behavioral patterns of an
individual. They are the primary movers which generate the powerful forces,
all the instincts and urges, passions and emotions in the man. These, in turn,
generate feelings and result into actions that satisfy the needs of love,
hate, fear etc. Therefore it may be that endocrine system is the basis of the
instincts from the gross point of view but actually the karmas are responsible
for the production of the instincts.

How the
instincts can be changed?

Now the most
important task before us is how these instincts and urges, impulses and
feelings can be pacified? In this context we can be benefit by the regular
practice of meditation. There are various methods available in this field. One
of them is to visualize the bright white color at the centre of enlightenment
that is in the middle part of the forehead. If a person practices this
meditation constantly, he or she can control his or her anger and increase his
or her power of tolerance to a great extent. The another significant process
of meditation is watching the deep breathing, which helps to pacify the
intensity of the instincts. Therefore, regular practice such meditations
develops balanced and an integrated personality by decreasing the intensity of
instincts.